Wahoo intestinal parasites

This will probably be one for Glenn, and I didn't have a camera handy. When cleaning a large wahoo recently, I did my usual examination of the gut contents for an idea of what he was feeding on. The stomach was empty, apart from two rather disgusting looking purple/red blobs which were attached to the inner stomach lining. They were able to be pulled away without any apparent damage, and apeared to have a mouth on the end which was attached. They resembled nothing so much as a very fat leech, attached inside the stomach. Elongated neck, overall length maybe 25mm, with a fat end diameter of around 18mm. Fish was otherwise in perfect health, gave a good fight and flesh was perfect.

Habanero

I have never cleaned a wahoo when they were not present , cleaned a lot of wahoo , never a singular , always in pairs. live and crawl for a while after removing from stomach . the Fijians have a myth/fable about them.

Glenn Moore

Not my area at all, but it sounds like a worm of some sort. I don't think that any marine leeches live in the intestines, but I really don't know. Could be a Spiny-headed worm? There is a specialist marine parasite group operating out of James Cook Uni - might be worth contacting them www.marineparasites.com